realmofadventurefandomcom-20200216-history
Experience
Player's Gain Experience Points For.... *Roleplaying: Each session every character receives a number of experience points for roleplaying. There is no set limit on this award, but it normally falls between 0 and 200 XP per session. This is an individual award over and above any additional XP for attaining story goals. *Inspired Ideas: A player who comes up with a very good idea or solves a tricky problem deserves an experience award. These solutions must come from the player's own wit and not spoon-fed to him by the DM on the roll of a dice. The most common award would be 50 XP, but may be significantly higher. This award is above and beyond any for the story goals. *Class Activities: Each session a character will get experience points if he uses abilities related to his class. Fighters receive a reward for fighting, wizards and sorcerers for casting spells, bards for singing and rogues for being sneaky. The level of the experience award really depends on the challenge the party faces, and what the activity is. A wizard might get quite a large reward the first time he creates a scroll, but it would grow less over time. Basically, if the activity can be seen as one that stretches the existing skills of a character then a reward is justified. Multiclass characters only receive the reward for class activities in the class they are working to increase at the next level. A reward is not given each time a character uses a class ability, but rather as a single sum per session. Rewards for class activities should be on a par with the roleplaying rewards, although could be considerably more at the DM's discretion. A player is not guaranteed a reward each session. *Achieving Story Goals: Each adventure is divided into scenes (encounters in D&D-speak). In each scene there is a goal and each goal has a related XP reward; in most cases this award will make up the bulk of the experience points gained by players. The reward is not based upon the challenge rating dictated in either the DMG or the Monster Manual it is a set figure. Experience points are therefore accrued arithmetically while the number characters need for the next level increases exponentially. This drastically slows down advancement. If the goal is achieved the award is divided between all the characters (and the NPCs) who participated in that stage of the adventure - even characters who were not directly involved. Characters completely absent from that part of the adventure won't get any experience points. The finale of an adventure is treated much like another encounter. Characters do not receive encounter awards and an extra award for completing the entire thing - all the encounter awards added together can be seen as the award for the adventure. *Story Goal experience can vary from 100 XP to 25,000 XP depending on the nature of the threat the PCs face, their personal power levels, their goals and the importance of the task at hand. There is no upper limit to the amount of experience the PC could enjoy. In practice story goals are unlikely to be more than a few hundred experience points per session, and usually less than 1000 XP for any one adventure. Timed Experience The basic guideline is 75 xp/level/hour. So a typical 4th level character in a 4 hour session gains 1200 xp. My take is this Start with a 50 xp per level per hour baseline Then add bonuses in chunks of 5% or 10%. I usually award bonuses for 1) meeting goals 2) my perception of difficulty of the adventure 3) clever play 4) otherwise entertaining play (good roleplaying, etc.) So, for example, a group of 10th level characters have a base of 500 xp per hour. A session of 4 hours, with a 10% bonus for difficulty of play, 10% for metting goals, 10% for roleplay. By Class *Warrior Per Hit of creature defeated 10 XP/level 100-500 XP for participating in jousts or melees. 500 XP for commanding troops in a battle. 500 XP for creating and implementing a battle plan. *Priest Per successful use of granted power 100 XP Spells cast 50 XP / spell level Spells cast to further ethos 100 XP/spell level Making potion or scroll XP value Making permanent magical item XP value 100 XP for successfully Turning Undead. 200 XP for converting important NPCs. 100 XP for leading a major religious service in a village, town, or city. 100 XP per spell level cast. 1 XP per gp donated to the Church (up to a max 10% of total wealth gained from an adventure). *Wizard Spells cast to overcome foes or problems 50 XP/spell level Spells succesfully researched 500 XP/spell level Making potion or scroll XP value Making permanent magical item XP value *Rogue Per succesful use of a special ability 200 XP Per gold piece value of treasure obtained 2 XP Per Hit Die of creatures defeated (bard only) 5 XP 100 XP per successful use of a thief skill (that helps in an adventure). 1 XP per gp gained through thiefly activities. 100-500 XP for planning and successfully completing a heist. XP as standard for monsters killed by backstabbing or poisoning. *Multiclass: Full xp award for each class, summed and split evenly. It's a bit gamish, but I don't mind if an easy advancing class helps a bit the more difficult one to advance (and it's easier to manage). This of course under the assumption that the player has a balanced act among the two classes. If a fighter/mage was to go full plate+two handed all the way, I wouldn't allow any awards (maybe not even xp) to the unused class. *Psion I also give 5xp/PP spent well, notes While 3rd Edition has cleared up the need for awarding extra experience points to characters for defeating monsters (for Fighters), for successfully casting a spell (for Clerics and Wizards) or for successfully backstabbing or sneaking up upon an enemy (for Thieves) by standardizing the Experience Point progressions for all classes and customizing Experience Point awards by the giving opponents a Challenge Rating instead of a base Experience Point value; there still gives rise for a desire, among some Dungeon Masters, to award players for their Role-Playing during a game session. In the Dungeon Master's Guide, pg 168, under "Variant: Story Awards," it states, "...you need to set up a system in which you can award XP for accomplishing goals and for actions and encounters that don't involve combat." Below is just such a system. As a base a Dungeon Master can assign Experience Points, for good Role-Playing, of 50 x Character Level at the end of each adventure or each game as the DM sees fit. This is by no means an astronomical amount but it gives us a base to work with. Where a first level character would gain 50 XP an 8th level character would gain 400 XP at the end of an adventure. By doing this, and using standard Experience Point awards, the PCs should reach the next level in 8 encounters, rather than 13.33 (as stated on pg 169 of the DMG). While, at lower levels, characters may Role-Play less and engage in combat more often, at higher levels PCs "...gain levels somewhat more slowly. Higher-level characters also tend to spend more and more time interacting with each other and with NPCs, which results in fewer experience points over time." Characters that engage in social interaction, whether trying to persuade the king to loan the party his Scepter of Lordly Might or by bluffing the Lord of Thieves into believing that they are the true Slave Masters, should, at the very least, gain experience through a variant award system. Another way to award role-play based Experience, though tedious, is to base the awards off of the success by which PCs succeed in using their social skills (bluff, diplomacy, sense motive, etc). The formula for such an awards system might proceed as follows; 10 x the difference of the skill check (roll - DC); the total of which is multiplied by the level of the character (failures are not counted and a character can never loose Experience Points by failing a skill check. If one uses equal level "opponents," on average, a first level character will only gain 5 EXP, every other skill check, through this method. A 1st Level character with 4 ranks in Bluff against a 1st Level Aristocrat with 4 ranks in Sense Motive will, on average roll 14.5 vs. the Aristocrats' 14.5 Sense Motive. But as the characters rise in levels this will give rise to greater margins of Experience Point gain. Using Skill Based Awards is tedious as the DM must keep track of successful skill checks and by how much they succeeded while running the rest of the game. Action Nominal Satisfactory Substantial Outstanding Defeat enemy in combat --- --- CR --- Defeat enemy w/o combat --- --- CR --- Survive trap --- --- 2/3 X CR --- Defeat trap --- --- CR --- Good idea unsuccessfully implemented by other 25 X lvl 50 X lvl --- --- Good idea successfully implemented by other --- 50 X lvl 75 X lvl --- Good idea successfully implemented by self --- --- 75 X lvl 100 X lvl Successfully implementing another's good idea 25 X lvl 50 X lvl --- --- Good Roleplaying 25 X lvl 50 X lvl 75 X lvl 100 x lvl Accomplishing a goal 25 X lvl 50 X lvl 75 X lvl 100 X lvl Using a class ability successfully outside combat 25 X lvl 50 X lvl --- --- Using a skill successfully outside combat 2 X rank 2 X rank 5 X rank 10 X rank 15 X rank Contributing to game outside session 25 X lvl 50 X lvl 75 X lvl 100 X lvl Ad Hoc 25 X lvl 50 X lvl 75 X lvl 100 X lvl Actions and Results The table is divided up into actions and their results. Results are further categorized by success: nominal, satisfactory, substantial, and outstanding. A nominal success is just that—an action that, while successful, produces a slight useful results, either in terms of game mechanics or in terms of adding fun to the game. An example might be using one's jump skill to ford a small stream which the other characters are wading, thereby avoiding getting wet. If the character has some slight but real reason to avoid getting wet, this is a nominal success. A satisfactory success is a result where there is a small tangible benefit. In the above example, if the character used his jump skill to ford the stream and avoid getting wet, thereby protecting certain papers or documents valuable only to the character, that would be a satisfactory success. A substantial success is when the result produces a moderate to large tangible benefit. If the character jumped the stream and avoided ruining spell books or documents important to the entire group, that would be a substantial success. An outstanding success is an accomplishment that produces an unexpectedly large, even amazing benefit. If the above character precariously jumped over a particularly large stream to avoid ruining an item vital to the quest to save the princess or the kingdom, that would be an outstanding success. It is true that DM's discretion plays a large role in determining the degree of success of an action, but the above categories go a long way towards guiding his or her decision. It is further necessary to note that success does not only encompass the "crunchy," numbers part of the game; if the action adds to the over-all experience, either by encouraging immersion in the game or by simply increasing the fun for all (in an in-character way), it is also a success. Multiplying by Levels The remaining question concerning the chart is according to whose level do you multiply? It can't be the character's level, or otherwise disparities in levels of party members will continue; the third edition experience system rightly seeks to make all members of the party the same level eventually, and this system does the same. Therefore, if the character gaining the XP is the highest level member of the party, the number in the above chart must be multiplied by the level of the lowest character in the party. If the character is the lowest level member, the number must be multiplied according to the level of the highest party member, and if the character gaining the XPs is neither highest nor lowest in terms of level, the number must be multiplied by a middling level. For example, in a party consisting of one 4th level character, two 5th level characters, and one 6th level character, any award the 6th level character gets from the above chart will be calculated by multiplying a number from the success category by 4, the level of the lowest party member. The 4th level character will multiply his number by 6, and the 5th level characters will multiply theirs by 5. In a more disparate party, calculate the s of members of middling levels by multiplying according to the level of the closest to the mean, rounding up for members below the mean and rounding down for members above the mean. For example, in a party of one 4th, one 5th, one 6th, and one 7th level character, the 5th level character would calculate awards by multiplying by 6, and the 6th level character would multiply by 5. The highest and lowest members of the party would still (and always) calculate their rewards by multiplying by the lowest and highest levels respectively and as stated above. It's really not as complex as it seems, and use will show it to be very intuitive. Or if you are still intimidated, just multiply the number from the chart by the mean level of the party (it won't close the disparity in levels so quickly, but it will be easier). Types of Actions All that remains is to discuss the various types of actions. Defeat enemy in combat: This is the traditional combat encounter, the bread and butter of the game. It appears on the chart simply for sake of completeness, and should be calculated using the chart from the core books. Defeat enemy without combat: An enemy need not always be defeated through battle. Tricking an enemy, befriending it, talking to it, intimidating it, or avoiding it (not fleeing from it) are all ways to defeat an enemy without combat. Survive Trap: This type of action means setting off a trap, surviving it, and getting past it; it means taking the damage from a trap or incurring an ill effect from it but still bypassing it. If the trap is reusable, and characters set it off but do not make it past the trap, they get no XPs. Defeat Trap: This means bypassing a trap without taking damage or incurring an ill effect from it, either through disarming it or through some other creative means. Good idea unsuccessfully or successfully implemented by other: This type of action refers to the situation where a PC is the "brains behind the operation," where she comes up with a useful idea but for whatever reason does not implement it herself, either because she is unable to or because she chooses not to for other reasons. Good ideas are too myriad to be individually described. The only stipulation is that they cannot be ideas concerning "traditional combat" or implemented therein; the DM should remember that the XP reward for combat and ideas pertaining to it is already covered by the core XP chart. Good idea unsuccessfully or successfully implemented by self: This is similar to the action above, but the PC also takes upon herself the potential risk of implementing the idea, thereby garnering a larger award. Good Roleplaying: Aye, here's the rub. This is a very controversial thing, and each DM certainly has his own idea of what constitutes good roleplaying. There are, however, some basic principles that comprise good roleplaying. The player ought to remain in character when speaking as the character; if the character is not a "talker," his actions must remain consistent (characters that are "talkers" arguably have more opportunities to be rewarded for this category). Good roleplaying does not necessarily involve interaction with other PCs or NPCs, either: a player could get an XP award for this category for responding to damage or the death of a loved one with a moving soliloquy. Although it may sound like an evasion, it is difficult to further explain this category beyond resorting to a definition similar to Justice Potter Stewart's characterization of pornography: a competent DM will know good roleplaying when he sees it. A final note: one thing good roleplaying is not is a successful bluff, diplomacy, or intimidate check unaccompanied by more than a marginal speech; these latter successes are covered by "using a skill successfully," below. Accomplishing a Goal: This is to be awarded when the PC accomplishes a task that is in some way instrumental to the quest or to the character. Using a class ability or skill successfully outside combat: This is fairly self-explanatory but must be awarded with caution. Generally abilities like laying on of hands, or healing or buff spells do not warrant an award, and anything that is directly related to the PCs' success in combat is also not to be rewarded. In using skills, the rank to be multiplied by the number in the chart is the rank of the character using the skill. Contributing to game outside session: It is particularly important that the DM use discretion when rewarding for this category, but generally it refers to something which relates to the PC that the player does outside the session for the good of the game. For example, the player could write an extended speech, write a detailed background for the character, produce art, write a poem, detail his castle, detail a part of the world that is relevant to the character, or numerous other things. Ad hoc: This category covers anything experience worthy that does not fall under one of the other rubrics. It is to be noted here (and perhaps should go without saying) that things which increase the fun of players but which are not game related, such as joking, bantering, and bringing food, do not warrant any experience. Hopefully this piece helps bring clarity to the murky depths of the non-combat experience conundrum. It is obviously not a hard, fast science, but it is useful nonetheless. In our next installment, we will discuss ways that players can maximize their non-combat experience point rewards.